Coleman connects on Citizenship

That arch-sceptic of bloggers, Professor Stephen Coleman, has succumbed to the lure of blogging (for a week at least) as a guest blogger on Connecting Bristol.

He's just returned from an intellectually challenging conference in Amsterdam to pose some points about the changing nature of citizenship:

1. The rules of the political game are changing and smart politicians are making themselves more visible, seem more able to be influenced and be more human.

2. It ain't working yet for politicians so they are confused.

3. Citizens are confused too.

Professor Coleman wants to challenge us and is looking for a response in the comments section.  Problem is he is stating (very eloquently) the obvious and doesn't provide too much to disagree with.

Is it a bad thing that the rules of the game are changing?  No.

Is is surprising that politicians are sharpening they persona as opposed to their policies?  Not really as political research becomes more sophisticated and able to identify the desires of the key swing voters.  The policies are the same so make the politicians different - slightly at least.

Is it surprising that politicians and citizens are confused?  Not really, it is new and complex.

So what are the important questions to ask?  Well we have a week to pose those in the comments section.

Comments

[Stephen Hilton]

So what are the important questions Shane. Tell us so we can disagree :)

[Shane McCracken]

Stephen, I don't really know what the questions are but it is only Tuesday...

I've posted over in your comments where a useful debate was emerging.